Advertising in Trade Journals
One has to be fairly careful when advertising in trade journals because the costs can get prohibitive, yet if you are selling to the industry, the percentage of readers who might be interested is large. If you have a company, which is not selling to the industry but rather participating in it, it is not always smart to run ads that allow your competition and invite to solicit you as fake customers to scout you out.
Indeed, many companies in an industry sector are members of large associations and they advertise in order to get favored articles written about their company, which they can use as reprints in brochure packages or on their websites. Personally, I think this is a mistake as it tends to end up as an unspoken game of extortion, in that the more you advertise the more articles they do on your company. I can tell you that our companies have always had good fortune in industry trade journals, without ever advertising in them.
Although even an article will incite immediate shopping by your competition and your sales departments will notice this the week of and the week after these articles come out and are mailed throughout the industry sector. What can you do? Well be sure to only have specific people interviewed and never anyone on your sales staff for them to contact.
Additionally, make it clear that you do not sell to the industry, but you buy from the industry in the article. This will bring you the competitions sales teams and their information without you handing out all of yours. Be wise where you advertise and be very careful around industry trade journals as your competition reads them more than your buyers ever will. Unless you sell to the industry, think on this in 2006.
Lance Winslow
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Imprinted Advertising Specialties
An Advertising Specialty imprinted with a promotional message is known as Imprinted Advertising Specialty. The usage of Advertising Specialties is extremely popular in the corporate world as gifts for their clients and employees as well as other high-profile people. These Imprinted Specialties are also regarded as promotional products, giveaways and ad-incentives. These specialties are a popular product even amongst non-profit organizations like schools, clubs etc.
The Imprinted Advertising Specialties also act as a great way to improve your marketing and public relations among consumers, businesses, volunteers, benefactors, employees, communities, etc. The Imprinted Advertising Specialty is used for developing business contacts or thanking existing customers for their patronage. The idea behind giving people an Imprinted Advertising Specialty could be to build brand loyalty or motivate the employees to help the company achieve the goals.
Everyone has at some time been given an Imprinted Advertising Special, something with a logo, slogan or saying. In fact you probably personally use at least one every day - maybe pens you write with or the mug you drink your morning coffee from. It could be the calendar you use to schedule meetings or the sweatshirt you wore this weekend. These gifts imprinted with a logo, slogan or saying act as a constant reminder of the company.
There are also especially stylish Imprinted Advertising Specialties like clocks, crystal, china and watches. The imprint on the Advertising Specialties will invariably come with the company name or the logo. However, you can take personalization to the next level by getting the recipient’s name also imprinted. The Imprinted Advertising Specialties can be used to motivate people by acknowledging their contributions, or prodding them to achieve a milestone, or simply motivating them towards a specific objective.
Advertising Specialties provides detailed information about advertising specialties, advertising specialty companies, advertising specialty distributors, advertising specialty manufacturers, and more. Advertising Specialties is the sister site of Outdoor Banner Stands.
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Features vs. Benefits vs. End Results
If you’ve been in the copywriting realm for very long at all, you’ve heard the phrase “features vs. benefits.” It’s a fundamental copywriting principle and driving force behind much of what we, as copywriters, create. But there’s also another aspect to this equation.
What happens after customers buy your product or service? Once they’ve used what you have to offer, what will be different in their lives? What will the end results, of their buying decision, be? Getting your customers to look at the end results of their actions can be an extremely powerful persuasion tool that you’ll want to incorporate into your copy.
Let’s look at features, benefits and end results and see how all three work individually and collectively to create a targeted push to the point of purchase.
Features - The Basic Outline of Your Product or Service
Features, in copywriting, are a starting point. They provide a basic outline for what your customer needs to know. Features describe (most often) the attributes of a product or service. If we’re using the example of a cordless, telephone-answering system, some features might be:
5.8GHz FHSS
Talking caller ID
Expandable to 4 handsets
Selectable ring tones
Speakerphones
For a person who knows nothing about cordless phones with answering machines, this list might not mean much. It’s a basic blueprint of the telephone and nothing more.
Benefits - Make the Product or Service More Personal
Benefits enliven the features. Benefits make the features, and the product or service, more personal. They explain how the features will improve the customer’s life in some way. Using the features list above, see what the benefits might be. (The list below was taken from Panasonic